This workshop explores issues of power and leadership. It is based upon Starhawk’s book : ‘Truth or Dare : Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery’ : http://www.starhawk.org/writings/tr...

Starhawk distinguishes three types of power : "power-over," referring to domination and control ; "power-from-within," meaning personal ability and spiritual integrity ; and "power-with," pertaining to social power or influence among equals. Each type of power is rooted in a mode of consciousness and a worldview that can be identified. We live embedded in systems of power-over and are indoctrinated into them, often from birth.

Power-over is linked to domination and control : the view of the world as made up of atomized, nonliving parts, mechanically interacting, valued not for what they inherently are but only in relation to some outside standard. In the worldview of power-over, human beings have no inherent worth ; value must be earned or granted. We internalize a primal insecurity about our own right to be, which drives us to compete for the tokens of pseudo-value.

Power-from-within is linked to the mysteries that awaken our deepest abilities and potential. The root of the word power means to be able. We can feel that power in acts of creation and connection, in planting, building, writing, playing, singing... We can feel it in acting together with others to oppose control. It sees the world itself as a living being, made up of dynamic aspects. In such a world, all things have inherent value. We do not have to earn value. Immanent value cannot be rated or compared. Nor can we lose it.

Power-with is social power, the influence we wield among equals : the power to suggest and be listened to, to begin something and see it happen. The source of power-with is the willingness of others to listen to our ideas. When we attempt to create new structures that do not depend upon hierarchy for cohesion, we need to recognize power-with, so that we can work with it, share and spread, and also beware of it. Power-with bridges the value systems of power-from-within and power-over. Power-with sees the world as a pattern of relationships, but its interest is in how that pattern can be shaped, molded, shifted.

The problem is that we ourselves have internalized power-over, and too often we reproduce it in the groups we form. We may join a group that promises political or spiritual liberation, only to find that it has simply changed the trappings of oppression, that our own sisters / comrades / compañeros / fellow spiritual seekers can still hurt us, disregard us, disrespect us. How do we live a different reality when the ways we perceive, feel, and react have been shaped by this one ?

We will consider these questions within sacred space and through ritual, exercises and energy work try to develop the tools we need to transform destructive patterns into energies freed for change.